Interesting People Reading Poetry is a short, sound-rich podcast created by Andy & Brendan Stermer. We ask artists and luminaries to read us a favorite poem and share what it means to them. Guests include rapper Dessa, biblical translator Robert Alter, painter Enrique Martínez Celaya, and photographer Alec Soth, among many others. We’ve been featured by the CBC Podcast Playlist, MPR News, Los Angeles Review of Books Podcast Review, Irish Independent, and elsewhere.
Our ambient scores and production style are an attempt to modernize the ancient practice of reciting poems to sparse, drone-like musical accompaniment. In June 2026, we released Of Modern Poetry, an album of ambient music initially composed for the podcast.
We created the show in 2017 with support from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Today, IPRP is a proudly independent, ad-free podcast. We rely on listeners like you to help us spread the word. If you find value in what we do, please write us a short review on Apple Podcasts and share a favorite episode with a friend.
New to the show and not sure where to start? Try this episode with advice columnist Amy Dickinson, or this one with historian Roy Foster.
We welcome guest pitches and recommendations, but please keep in mind that we do not typically feature poets as guests in this series. We’re interested in exploring how luminaries from diverse disciplines can teach us to approach poems in new ways. Contact us at interestingpeoplereadingpoetry [at] gmail [dot] com.
We feature one short listener poem at the end of every episode. To submit, call the Haiku Hotline at 612-440-0643 and read your poem after the beep.
Our publication schedule is reliably irregular, our production methods stubbornly inefficient. To receive an email whenever we release a new episode, please sign up for our newsletter.
THE PRODUCERS
Andy Stermer is a composer based in Miami. His work spans a range of genres including ambient, jazz, and music for television and advertising. One of his favorite poems is “The God Who Loves You” by Carl Dennis.
Brendan Stermer is a poet based in northwest Minnesota. He is the author of Forgotten Frequencies (NDSU Press, 2023) and Semi-Finished Goods (Prairie Sea Flotilla, 2025). One of his favorite poems is “Independent Existence” by Tom Hennen.
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